We've been loving this game, and play it a lot. But some of our interpretations of how the Ghouls work seem to be in contention in our group. So I thought I would put all of our questions in one post.

1) Can Ghouls attack the turn that they are put into decline?

2) If so, is the process that they go into decline and THEN attack (in other words, they don't get to use their special power the turn they go into decline, assuming they weren't Stout)?

3) On the following turn, do the Ghouls attack before the player has to choose their new Active Race?

4) When multiple Ghouls in decline are defending a region, and that region is conquered, are the defeated Ghouls treated like an Active Race for purposes of redistributing the excess Ghouls at the end of the turn?

Our answers to all of the above questions was "yes". Please tell us if we're right or wrong.

That's weird. This bit used to mention Shire Games, and tell you all how wonderful we are. But it seems to have got deleted. Let's see what happens this time ....

Andrew Parks wrote:

We've been loving this game, and play it a lot. But some of our interpretations of how the Ghouls work seem to be in contention in our group. So I thought I would put all of our questions in one post.

1) Can Ghouls attack the turn that they are put into decline?

2) If so, is the process that they go into decline and THEN attack (in other words, they don't get to use their special power the turn they go into decline, assuming they weren't Stout)?

3) On the following turn, do the Ghouls attack before the player has to choose their new Active Race?

4) When multiple Ghouls in decline are defending a region, and that region is conquered, are the defeated Ghouls treated like an Active Race for purposes of redistributing the excess Ghouls at the end of the turn?

Our answers to all of the above questions was "yes". Please tell us if we're right or wrong.

Andrew

As I was taught it ....

1) Nope. Your declined ghouls only attack BEFORE you attack with your active race. In this turn, you don't have one.

We've been loving this game, and play it a lot. But some of our interpretations of how the Ghouls work seem to be in contention in our group. So I thought I would put all of our questions in one post.

1) Can Ghouls attack the turn that they are put into decline?

2) If so, is the process that they go into decline and THEN attack (in other words, they don't get to use their special power the turn they go into decline, assuming they weren't Stout)?

3) On the following turn, do the Ghouls attack before the player has to choose their new Active Race?

4) When multiple Ghouls in decline are defending a region, and that region is conquered, are the defeated Ghouls treated like an Active Race for purposes of redistributing the excess Ghouls at the end of the turn?

Our answers to all of the above questions was "yes". Please tell us if we're right or wrong.

Andrew

As I was taught it ....

1) Nope. Your declined ghouls only attack BEFORE you attack with your active race. In this turn, you don't have one.

2) Therefore becomes irrelevant

3) Yep.

4) Yes, I believe so.

Of course ... I now await to be corrected by someone who knows

N.

As per the rules, those are the correct answers as far as I can tell as well.

I've always played the ghouls as the others have stated, but I was curious about one more thing. Can you redeploy your ghouls the same turn that you put them in decline. They have a different situation than all other declining races in that they still have stacks of tokens. Obviously with other races if you "redeployed" them you would lose a territory because you can only have one per space. Please let me know what you think.

I've always played the ghouls as the others have stated, but I was curious about one more thing. Can you redeploy your ghouls the same turn that you put them in decline. They have a different situation than all other declining races in that they still have stacks of tokens. Obviously with other races if you "redeployed" them you would lose a territory because you can only have one per space. Please let me know what you think.

Troop redeployment is the final phase of a turn on which you have chosen to perform conquests. (The sequence is, generally: Pick up troops to use for conquests; make conquests; redeploy troops as desired.) If you choose to go into decline instead, you don't get to do anything that you would do in a "conquest turn," including redeployment.

Note, choosing a "conquest turn" does not obligate you to atetmpt any conquests. You may choose not to decline, but to stand pat on the regions you occupy and, if you wish, redeploy your troops.

On a turn that you go into decline you do nothing except flip your tokens and gain victory points for the regions you control.

So

1) You do nothing, the Ghoul tokens are flipped, but not discarded, and the special power token is discarded unless is remains in decline (fortified, seafaring, ect..)

2) This turn you are declining.

3) The Ghouls will now act before you do anything with your active race - including choosing one - you take a turn with the Ghouls. The only exception is if you choose to put your active race into decline, in this case you will discard the Ghouls and the new race will be your in decline race, the Ghouls would of course stay if they or the active race you are declining are Spirits - but you still do not get a turn with the Ghouls.

4) When Ghouls are attacked 1 is killed and the rest go back to your hand. You redeploy them at the end of the current players turn,

I want to bring a dissenting voice to the general consensus about point 3. I'm not sure that I agree that the ghouls attack before you *select* your active race. Forgive me for not having the rules in front of me, but I believe that the steps for a turn have the selection process listed as the first step and then attacking as second. It seems to me that the attacking with your declined ghouls, even though it must happen before your selected race enters the map, would still happen after the selection.

In general, I admit that this distinction is fairly inconsequential, since you haven't done a whole lot with the selected race either before you move your ghouls, but there is a very slight chance that the outcome of your roll for your last ghoul attack might affect the race you choose to play.

Does somebody that has the rules handy want to take a second look and determine if my argument might have merit when looked at in a new light? (I don't own the game, so I can't look at the rules conveniently.)